New Contract

Yesterday was the 90 day mark, so we are moving again, and quickly!  We got the new contract on Tuesday and dated everything from the 26th, and should be receiving the new mortgage application tonight or tomorrow (if this snow doesn't interfere!).  Once we get out the new mortgage application, we need to start looking for homeowners insurance and schedule another appraisal.

We have a new tentative close date of February 18th, but we are really playing it by ear.  It's a good thing we love this house so much, because after this I don't want to move again for a looong time!

OK, enough boring stuff.  Here is the color palate I like for the house right now:

Right now I'm thinking the living room, family room and hallways will be grey, the dining room I want purple, the kitchen will probably be grey, master bedroom blue and office brown.  I'm not quite sure about the bathrooms and guest room yet, but it will probably tie into the color palate.  Everything will have white mouldings. I can't wait to get samples and see how they look in the house.

Kitchen Ideas

We're planning on making some updates to the kitchen before we move in.  The floors and the cabinets are in good shape, but we want to change the backsplash and counter before we move in. Here is the current kitchen:

Yup, that's right, the cabinets were installed crooked, as was the backsplash beneath.  The counter was installed poorly as well. We're also planning on adding another bottom cabinet next to the dishwasher and upper cabinets above that for extra storage and counter space.

Existing Flooring:

Existing hardware and cabinets:

We love Eco countertops from Consentino.  They're gorgeous countertops made with 75% post-consumer material, and has a cradle to cradle certification.  We're pretty sure we're going with that, but not sure which color.  I like the darker, Matt likes lighter.  

We'd like to go with a backsplash that adds a little bit of color to the space.  I love the look of glass, so that's probably what we're going to go with:

I'm not sure if I want a small table or a kitchen cart.  At this point I'm leaning towards a table, because I think we'll have enough storage and counter space once we extend the cabinets, but we're going to play it by ear.  

Obviously these are just ideas at this point, and we need to see samples in the house.  We're planning to do everything ourselves except installing the counters. 

Slowly moving forward

I haven't posted in a while because nothing has really been happening with the house.  We were hoping to have closed by now, but everything keeps getting pushed back.

The story behind this is as follows:  The seller is an investment company that bought the house in October and flipped it to sell in November.  They acquired the deed on October 26th, and we put in an offer in the middle of November.  Matt and I are getting an FHA loan.  Because of the stupid stringent rules surrounding that type of loan, the seller has to be in possession of the deed for a minimum of 90 days before closing.  Not only do they need to be in possession of the deed, but all of the documents have to be dated after the 90 days. 

So, we need a new contract, new appraisal and the seller has to get an appraisal dated after January 26th. Luckily the seller agreed to maintain all of the terms of the current contract (thank gosh we got a lawyer), so we'll have to go and sign the new contract next week, and hopefully we can get the appraisals done within a week.  We don't think we'll need to give the mortgage company any more information, but we might have to send them more updated account and pay info (the last time we gave them anything was the end of December). 

Our new goal is to close at the beginning of February.  We'd love to be moved in by the end of the month, but we'll have to play it by ear at this point.  We're trying not to get too frustrated, but it's hard when we've been under contract for almost 70 days. Sigh.

Well, here it is!

So it's the new year, and we're buying a house, and blah blah blah.  I'm really just super self absorbed and have to share my thoughts/feeling/home renovations on the interweb!  Since Matt and I are buying a house to which we will be doing remodeling and redecorating, I really just wanted a place to post our before and afters, and to keep a log of the projects we've done and the timeline.  Hopefully we'll be closing by the end of the month, so we can start on the updates.  There's not too much we can't do ourselves, so it'll be an awesome adventure! 

 

So basically, it's really ugly.  I have no idea what is with 1) the silly fence 2) the baby blue on cream color palate 3) the painted brick 4) the gutters, stairs, and downspouts painted blue.  Really?  Anyway, that's just the outside and obviously there's a lot of work to be done. 

The plus sides of the house, AKA why we are going to be majorly in debt.  1) It's got a great layout.  main floor = kitchen, dining, living; bottom floor = family room, band room, laundry and 1/2 bath; upper floor = 3 bedrooms, full bath and 1/2 bath en suite to the master bedroom.  2) great neighborhood, good school district, close to work (5 min for me, 10 min for Matt), 3) it's the ugliest house in the neighborhood, which means we can only add value, 4) we can do 95% of the work ourselves, 5) we can afford it. 

At this point we're looking to close at the end of the month.  They just did the appraisal last week, and hopefully everything moves smoothly from now on.  Yay house!